Saturday, 13 August 2011

Creating a Quilting Design - Tutorial

This is a close up of the fabric in Bronwyn’s quilt which I showed in my last post.

I used this fabric as inspiration for the quilting design in the setting triangles of this quilt. You can see there is a mixture of flowers, swirls, leaves and paisley shapes.

I started by sketching some ideas that came to me from looking at this fabric.

Then I incorporated them into a triangle shape – a few pages of sketches were discarded before getting to this stage.

When I found something I liked, I was ready to load the quilt. I marked the shapes and basic lines with chalk to see if I liked how it would fit into the area I was working with.

Once satisfied, I took a deep breath and started quilting.

It was a little intimidating to work with such a high contrasting thread as it shows every little wobble. Once I got started though, it was a lot easier than I thought. I even found that one line of stitching was not strong enough, so in some places I went over the stitching line twice to make it stand out even more.

About Me

Hi, I'm Desley from Addicted to Quilts, a long arm quilter who is passionate about what I do. I started my long arm business in 2003, and as my business name suggests, I am totally Addicted to Quilts. I love designing, piecing and quilting, and of course buying fabric. My quilting is not computerised - I only quilt freehand from the front of the machine.

Quilting Service

I hope you enjoy looking at my blog. If you have finished a quilt top and are looking for someone to quilt it, please send me an email or visit my website for details.I would love to help you turn your top into a finished quilt.